PressTV-US federal workers miss paycheck over govt. shutdown

Hundreds of thousands of US federal workers have missed their first paycheck of the year due to the ongoing partial government shutdown, which occurred after President Donald Trump and Congress failed to agree on an appropriations bill that would include funding a border wall.

The government shutdown has dragged on for nearly three weeks over Trump’s demand that funding construction of a border wall on the US-Mexico border should be included in the government funding bill.

About 800,000 federal employees have been affected by the government shutdown, forcing workers to scale back spending, cancel trips, apply for unemployment benefits and take out loans to pay bills.

Roughly 420,000 federal employees were deemed essential and are working unpaid. An additional 380,000 are staying home without pay

While furloughed federal workers have been compensated in previous shutdowns, it’s not guaranteed that will happen this time.